is Hunter Biden's LAPTOP memecoin DEAD?

@HunterBiden's $LAPTOP memecoin had one of the most dramatic debuts in recent crypto memory. Launched on September 9 on Coinbase's Base network, the token spiked sharply in its opening minutes before collapsing nearly 98% within the first hour of trading, per CoinGecko data. The market cap, which briefly touched the billions, has since slumped to below $300 million, leaving traders and observers questioning whether the token has any future.

A Brutal Launch Day

$LAPTOP opened at $190.81 before crashing to as low as $3.70 within the first hour of trading. The speed of the collapse was striking even by memecoin standards. For context, TRUMP needed 18 months to fall 97% from its peak. $LAPTOP managed a comparable loss in under 60 minutes.

The mechanics behind the crash were straightforward. The token briefly reached a fully diluted valuation near $144 billion while its liquidity pool contained only about $48,000, creating a massive gap between the token's implied valuation and the capital actually available to support trading. The LAPTOP order book was so thin that small sales, including from airdrop claimers, cratered the price.

The losses were real and painful for many. The crash saw several traders record massive losses, with one trader losing $197,000 within hours. Lookonchain also identified a wallet that spent about $200,000 buying 919 $LAPTOP near $218, while another wallet turned an initial $900 purchase into more than $250,000 after selling during the early surge.

Controversy Before the Coin Even Launched

The project faced headwinds well before trading began. Crypto traders sharply criticized the launch, prompting Kraken to delete a promotional post and a Coinbase Base executive to distance themselves from the project. Base founder Jesse Pollak confirmed the $LAPTOP team contacted his team, but said Base made a "conscious decision" not to assist with the token's design or promotion.

$LAPTOP is a fungible ERC-20 token on Base. As a memecoin, it has no utility, but incorporates two novel distribution mechanisms designed to promote long-term community growth. Part of that design involved reaching across political lines: 20% of the supply was allocated to airdrops, with the first group in line being wallets sitting on losses from $TRUMP, the memecoin Donald Trump launched days before his 2025 inauguration.

For now, price action has gone quiet. With no meaningful recovery and sentiment firmly negative, the central question is whether $LAPTOP can find a base of genuine holders, or whether it joins the growing list of politically themed tokens that burned bright and faded fast.

Sources:
CoinDesk: Crypto Traders Turn on Hunter Biden's LAPTOP Memecoin Before It Even Launches
CoinCentral: Hunter Biden's LAPTOP Price: 98% Crash in Under an Hour
Fortune: Hunter Biden Launches $LAPTOP Memecoin